the magic school bus
by odstpilot
Summary: Summary: While ascending the space elevator, Trigger encounters a flying school bus from a different earth. Wackiness ensues.
1. Chapter 1

Ch 1

Trigger fired the last of his laser cannon into the drone, destroying it for good. Taking a deep breath, he relaxed into the cockpit of the Morgan.

"I figured a way out. We're going home." Count said.

"Let me in on it." Trigger said.

"The space elevator. The windbrake is hollow at the top, so you can fly out of it." Count said.

Taking a deep breath, Trigger flew into the windbrake, now flying in the vertical plane of motion. While he had done that plenty of times, this time he had no room for error. One little mistake and he was dead.

"I can't extend my landing gear. I'm going to attempt a belly landing." Count said. Trigger heard as his friend crashed his plane, the sounds of metal against metal filling his ear drum. He waited for Count's voice, but nothing was heard.

"Damn it." Trigger muttered. Looking ahead, he kept his airspeed low; the engines were damaged during the fight with the drones and he didn't want to push it, especially in such a precarious situation.

"Does anyone see Trigger, or Count?" Huxian asked.

"Calm down. We just have to be patient." Jeager urged.

…

Outer space, Strangreal.

In geosynchronous orbit with space elevator.

"What is that?" Kei asked, seeing an object heading towards the elevator.

"Probably another spacecraft." an astronaut said.

"Maybe. We better get in close." she said. Upon closer examination, Kei's jaw dropped upon seeing the object. She was seeing a school bus that appeared to be modified with wings and rocket engines on the back end.

Perhaps she was hallucinating. Rubbing her eyes, she looked again and saw the bus now heading down the cables.

"Shit. Contact the ground! Tell them they've got company!" Nagase ordered.

"We can't get thru. We're being jammed!"

"By what?" Nagase asked, wondering if the fighting on earth had gotten worse. They already saw the debris of hundreds of satellites in orbit. What was going on? She didn't have time to think as she saw the bus dive down the cables of the elevator.

"Shit." she said, as they proceeded to dock in the upper atmosphere.

Inside the bus was a different story.

"We're gonna die!" a student shouts in fear, as they plunged straight down to the earth.

"No we're not! We're just fine." Ms Frizzle said, smiling at her terrified students. But upon returning to look in front of them, she gulped in fear.

"Take chances. Make mistakes. Get messy." she said, a grin on her face as she continued their direction downward.

On the opposite end of the elevator, Trigger was heading upward, when he heard Rosa speak.

"Can you hear me, we're all waiting. A world of darkness needs a light to shine. We're waiting for that… beacon of light!" she exclaimed.

"I'll make it, Rosa." Trigger said, when his radar chirped.

"Oh shit!" he exclaimed.

"What is it?" Rosa asked; everyone else stayed quiet.

"I've got a contact bearing down towards me from the opposite side of the elevator." Trigger said.

"I see it on radar. Accelerate and break thru the top." Longcaster said.

"My engines are damaged. I can't accelerate without destroying them. Longcaster, how soon until we merge?" Trigger asked.

"Not close enough." Longcaster said.

"Looks like i'll have to face the music." Trigger said, as he looked over his ordnance. His missiles and laser cannon were spent. He only had his gun, and that may not be enough.

Upon visual contact Trigger pulls the trigger, sending hot lead downrange. Yet still, the unknown comes closer. Looking closer, Trigger gasps in shock as he sees a flying school bus heading towards him. In complete shock, he is unable to pull the trigger let alone speak about his encounter. All he could do is maneuver his plane to avoid a collision.

"Come on!" he shouts, racing towards the bus.

Ms Frizzle can only look in shock as the fighter jet came closer, at first firing its guns. Then the pilot stopped. As they came closer, Ms Frizzle saw the odd shape of the plane, seeing the wings were put on backwards. As they came close to each other, she saw the pilot who looked directly at her, probably wondering what the hell he was seeing.

"What the fuck…" Trigger muttered, seeing the flying bus heading past him. Unable to look behind him, he presses forward until he reaches the top of the windbreaker. Everyone was cheering in response to Trigger surviving the war. But Trigger was concerned about the apparent flying bus. When he flew high enough, he let his plane stall and pointed the nose inside the elevator and headed back to where he came from.

"If that's an enemy, they need to be stopped." he said to himself, ignoring the pleas of his fellow pilots. It was too late to turn back now. Upon reaching the end, he sharply pulled up and entered the hollow chamber where he shot down the final drone. Seeing the flying school bus, he put the gun pipper on the target and pulled the trigger.

Ms Frizzle watched as the tracers flew past and around the bus. Knowing that the lives of her students were in danger, she slowed down and landed the bus, seeing the same fighter jet fly above her. Slowing to a complete stop, she exited the bus and saw the same fighter slowly approaching the bus.

Looking closer, she saw another person hanging off of the front landing gear with a pistol in his hands. The plane stopped, and the pilot came out, brandishing a shotgun in his hands.

"Longcaster, you're not going to believe this." Count said.

"Describe what you're seeing." the AWACs said.

"It's best if you see it. Can you tap into my infrared camera?" Trigger asked.

"I'm already hooked in, and i can see what you're talking about." Longcaster said, as he too saw a school bus with wings and powerful engines at the rear.

"Okay, we're sending in rescue choppers." Longcaster said.

"Good. The bus apparently flew in here, so it can fly out of here. I'll fly as escort." Trigger said, examining his plane.

"Trigger, you think you'll be able to fly out of here?" Count asked.

"If i keep the speed at 600 mph, i should be good." Trigger said.

Writing a note to down some beer when he got out of the elevator, Count approached Ms Frizzle and told her of the new escape plan. Everyone was to rendezvous at the Selatapura air base.

"You do whatever that man says. If you disobey him, he'll kill you and everyone on that bus." Count warned, pointing to Trigger.

"Okay. But why?" Ms Frizzle asked.

"We just prevented the apocalypse from happening, and now you appear. We're rather trigger happy at the moment." Count said.

Trigger watched as the school bus ascended up the elevator, shaking his head in disbelief. Accelerating until he gained enough speed, Trigger followed the bus up the elevator and past the wind break. The two aircraft headed towards the air base, seeing the rest of the surviving coalition planes parked.

Upon landing, Ms Frizzle stepped out of the bus, telling her students to stay inside. She was approached by Trigger who took her to a jet black car, seeing a young blond woman standing next to the car, opening the back door. Frizzle was pushed into the car, and the blond woman drove them deeper into the base.

"What have you gotten yourself into this time, Trigger?" the woman asked.

"Call me crazy, but something about this seems familiar." Trigger replied.

"How?" the woman asked.

"That…bus came down from the opposite end of the elevator. And that bus has no aerodynamic properties whatsoever. Even my Morgan was pushed to its limit climbing the damn thing. Though my engines are damaged." Trigger said.

"You think they're not from here?" the woman asked.

Trigger didn't respond, but pulled out his Iphone and began to search. Frizzle looked at the electronic device in his hand and reached to see it, only to be pushed into the back seat with a charged AK rifle pointed in her chest.

"Don't do that again." Trigger said, waiting for Ms Frizzle to nod back. None of this was familiar to her, and it wasn't a friendly place. She only hoped she and her students could get back to their homes. The car stopped, and Frizzle was pulled out and led to a building.

"Who's this, Trigger?" a young man asked, walking next to them.

"Don't know, Tabloid. Higher ups want to meet her." Trigger said, opening the front door.

Ms Frizzle took notice of her surroundings, but she knew that an escape attempt was impossible. Everyone she met was clearly military, wearing uniforms of one type or another. And they were all armed, most of them with either automatic weapons or shotguns. Cooperating with these people was her and her students best chance for survival.

She was pushed into a room, seeing other people. Trigger snapped a salute, seeing Longcaster and Rosa.

"At ease, Trigger." Longcaster said.

"It's good to see you again, Trigger." Rosa said, walking towards him. She pulled him into a bear hug.

"It's okay, Princess. I'm alive." Trigger said when Rosa forcefully kissed him.

"You two dumbasses get a room. Right now, we got more pressing issues." A woman said. She was wearing a tanktop with a mechanics belt filled with various tools. Everyone sat down, and Longcaster stood up.

"This meeting is highly classified. If anyone speaks of this, you'll be spending the rest of your life in a Yuktobanian gulag with no parole. No matter your rank. Ms, who are you?" he asked.

"Ms Valerie Frizzle. I'm a third-grade science teacher. I was taking my students on a space field trip and was supposed to return to earth, but i instead ended up here." she calmly said.

"How did you take your students into space?" Dr Schroder asked.

"I have some footage about their flying bus." Longcaster said, as he turned on a flat screen, and selected Trigger's recent gun and helmet footage.

Everyone watched as Trigger came closer to the school bus, firing his guns then ceased shooting. Both aircraft merged, and Longcaster slowed down the footage to see what Trigger saw.

"What the fuck?" Avril asked.

"Just what i thought, scrap queen. How in gods name you managed to get a school bus flying… Longcaster, skip ahead to when i fly down the chute." Trigger advised. He didn't need to watch the footage, but buried his nose into his Iphone, still searching for something.

"Trigger, what are you looking for?" Major McOnie asked, getting his attention.

"I told you this seemed familiar. Here it is." Trigger said, standing up.

"One year after ISAF took Farbanti, Mobius 1 supposdly saw what exhausted airmen call 'foo fighters.' Others say he was engaged with combat with free Erusean craft. One day, Mobius 1 came open. He said that he was on patrol, the day before Christmas. He then encountered what appeared to be a miniaturized V2 rocket escorting a flying sled pulled by 13 reindeer." Trigger said.

"You're kidding!" Count said.

"I wish i were. But considering who wrote this, it's most likely true." Trigger said, when Rosa picked up his phone.

"It says here that he escorted them out of the SAM network defending the territory and they disappeared thru a space-vortex." she said.

"Correct. He said that the driver of the rocket was a big-headed kid called Jimmy. He also said that the driver of the sled was Rick. ISAF command covered it all up. And the ace himself recanted the whole thing. But you have to admit, there are similarities." Trigger continued.

"This Rick. What was his last name?" Ms Frizzle asked.

"We don't know. Do you know anyone named Rick?" Trigger asked.

"Yes. Rick Sanchez. A very brilliant scientist, though we never got along. Thank god." Ms Frizzle said.

"It's most likely a coincidence. The chances of both our Ricks being the same are astronomical." McOnie said.

"Now that's out of the way, there's one thing that we're all interested in. How did you get your school bus to fly from space to earth?" Avril asked.

"It's complicated." Ms Frizzle said.

"We got plenty of time." Rosa said.


	2. Chapter 2

Ch 2

"Nice going, Morty. You shanghaied me into getting your crazy elementary teacher and now we're orbiting some planet next to the corpse of a cosmonaut." Morty said, as he began to search the corpse for some vodka.

"What's a cosmonaut?" Morty asked.

"It's the Russian word for astronaut. Morty what kind of shit do they teach at your school? Oh wait, they don't teach you anything of importance. Just bullshit about your feelings instead of cold hard science." Rick said, as he grabbed the flask and downed its contents.

"Say what you will about the Yukes, but they sure know how to make their vodka." Rick said.

"Yukes? Don't you mean Russians?"

"Not quite. Apparently, Yuktobania is an expy of the Soviet Union." Rick said, as he looked at his portal gun.

"That's great, Rick. But how are we getting down from here?" Morty asked, seeing the planet beneath them.

"Leave that to me." Rick said, as he began to yank pull wires from the inside of the capsule.

After yanking one too many wires, the capsule broke orbit and fell towards the earth. Morty was screaming for his life, while Rick was busy trying to fly the damn thing. He had his teleportation gun plugged in with several wires, cursing the obsolete electricity the Yukes made the ship with.

"You know, if those bastards put more emphasis on science instead of their vodka we wouldn't be in this mess." he said, failing to notice a message on the teleporter gun.

_'Grunder Industries/EASA drones activated_

_Location: Meglith_

_Mission orders: Attack Osean military targets_

_Closest targets: Osean targets at Selapatura harbor'_

Down on the ground, everyone was looking at the engine of the school bus unable to comprehend the tech inside.

"So this bus can transform into any object and any size you see fit?" Avril asked.

"Correct." Ms Frizzle said.

"If it wasn't for the fact that we all saw Trigger's footage of your bus flying in the air, we wouldn't believe you." Count said.

A young private came running towards the group, yelling about something important.

"Private, what is it?" Longcaster asked.  
"Sorry, sir. But the tower picked up an unknown contact high in the upper atmosphere. And it's falling fast." the soldier said.

"Place of impact?" Longcaster asked.

"The space elevator." the soldier said, pointing a finger to the tower.

"Trigger, grab the fastest plane and intercept." Longcaster said.

"Avril, i'll need your help preparing my Morgan. I'll need air to air missiles, if we have any left." Trigger said.

"I outfitted your Morgan with that giant laser gun and those MPBM missiles. Why not use those?" she asked.

"Too heavy." Trigger said, as he and Avril started to gather the few air to air missiles that haven't been used.

"You got two side-winder missiles, 1 R-73 and 2 R-77's. Good luck, Trigger." Avril said.

As Trigger rolled down the tarmac, he arced upwards before the landing gear was fully retracted. Heading into the blue, he barrel rolled the plane several times.

"That's one hell of a pilot." Ms Frizzle said, looking up.

"Longcaster, i need the point of trajectory." Trigger said, looking ahead with his eyes. The sooner he found this unknown, the better.

"You'll be finding it soon. Good luck, Strider 1." Longcaster said.

Trigger sees what appeared to be a meteor flying towards him at mach 3.

"It's too fast! I can't catch it!" Trigger warned as he gave chase. Arming all of his missiles, he attempted to gain a radar lock, but quickly found himself out of range. Pushing his engines to the limit, he could only watch as the meteor came closer to the tower.

"Longcaster, evacuate the immediate area around the tower! We're looking at… what the hell?" Trigger wondered aloud, now seeing the object harshly slowing down.

"Trigger, report!" Longcaster said.

"Longcaster, i don't think that's a meteor. It looks like a spacecraft. It's parachute has deployed." Trigger said, getting closer.

Inside the capsule, Rick and Morty looked outside one of the windows and saw the Adfx-01 approaching them.

"Rick, i think we're in trouble." Morty said.

Rick pulled out his scanner and groaned in annoyance.

"Oh shit. Back here again. On this world, the inhabitants fight each other every six months or so, and make fighter planes that fly around as if they were amped up on cocaine, psp, and bath salts. I'm betting that pilot kills us." Rick said.

"Longcaster, i recognize that craft. It looks like one of the old manned space modules the Yukes put up in orbit during the cold war." Trigger said.

"Can't believe the parachute still works. We've estimated its landing point. Go ahead and land, Trigger." Longcaster said.

"Morty, here's the plan. We got out guns blazing." Rick said, pulling out his plasma pistol and charged it, seeing the capsule be surrounded by many personal, all armed.

"Oh jeez!" Morty said, now seeing a fighter jet approaching them, also armed to the teeth.

"Trigger, if whoever's in there decides to test us, nail them with a missile." Count said, checking his rifle.

"My pleasure." Trigger said.

The blast door opened, and Morty came out, his arms raised up.

"We surrender! Don't kill us!"

"Morty, is that you?" Ms Frizzle asked, leaning back against the front landing gear.

"Ms Frizzle?" Morty asked, seeing his teacher.

"Goddamnit! Nooooooo! Don't tell me that psycho broad is here!" Rick shouted from inside the capsule.

"Nice to see you too, Rick." Ms Frizzle said.

"Is that him?" Trigger asked, almost falling out of the cockpit when Ms Frizzle appeared right next to him with a wide grin on her face.

"That's him." she said.

"Rick, do you know a kid named Jimmy Neutron?" Rosa asked.

"Motherfucker. I know him. The idiot all but killed santa claus and forced me to deliver the presents. We had a run in with one of your pilots. He almost killed me." Rick said, walking out of the capsule.

"Everyone present, consider this meeting classified." Rosa said.

"Considering the ASAT strike wiped out all comms across the planet, you'll get no problems with that." Avril said, only for Rosa to slap her across the back of the head.

"Anyway, my dumbass grandson dragged me here to get you, Ms Frizzle. Don't know why, because you're fucking insane. Well, we found you and we're heading back home." Rick said, furrowing his eyebrows when he looked at his portal gun.

"If our world survives the next 24 hours without being destroyed by a nuclear war, rogue AI, or an extraterrestrial force, i'll be impressed." Avril flippantly said.

"You can forget about that." Rick said, as he tinkered with his portal gun.

"What makes you say that?" Ms Frizzle asked.

"EASA drones, Meglith, kill Osean planes, what's all this about?" Rick asked.

"Rick, did you activate any Erusean drones that are still intact?" Longcaster asked.

"Maybe. What's it to you?" Rick said, as he tinkered with his portal gun.

"Where are they activated?" Dr Schroeder asked.

"Some place called Meglith." Rick said.

The base soon became a flurry of activity as pilots and mechanics worked hard to get as many planes ready for combat as soon as possible. Trigger has his Morgan inside a hanger where he, Rosa, Ms Frizzle, and Avril were putting weapons on the bird, finishing with the large laser gun.

"Scrap queen, how many shots does this laser pod have?" Trigger asked, as he helped bolt it into his plane.

"You got three shots. After that, it's useless." Avril said.

The pilots gathered in the hanger, where Longcaster gave an impromptu briefing. Grabbing some paper, he drew two dots on opposite ends of the paper.

"We are here. Meglith is here, and the toasters are heading right towards us." Longcaster said.

"Toasters? You guys managed to create flying toasters?" Ms Frizzle asked.

"No." Schroeder said.

"What else could it be? Why else would you call it toasters? Where can i get a hold of this tech?" Ms Frizzle asked.

"As i was saying, the operation is simple: all available planes are to be sent to crush the drones and prevent them from entering this airspace. Name of the op is Adler tag; Eagle day. This mission is to be classified at all costs. Once you return to base, any and all intel will be destroyed. Black boxes are to be erased, and camera footage is to be destroyed. Now lets go toaster shopping." Longcaster said, ignoring the crazy teacher.

As everyone headed to their planes, Longcaster pulled Dr Schroeder aside.

"Dr Schroeder, you're flying with me." Longcaster said.

"What for? You guys killed hundreds of drones. These drones can't be any different." the Belkan answered.

"Maybe. But no one has been to Meglith during the entire war. If you know something about a cache of drones at the base, we could use your help."

"Eagle day. Reminds me of the 101st screaming eagles." Trigger said, as he walked towards his Morgan.

"Eagles don't scream. It's more like this: AUGHK AUGHK!" Ms Frizzle said, catching Trigger giving her an odd look.

"You need to get your head examined." he said, putting his helmet on. Ms Frizzle rolled her eyes when an idea came into her head. She ran towards the school bus and turned on the engine, and aimed it at the Morgan.

"Seatbelts, everyone!" she exclaimed and shrunk the bus to microsize and raced towards the super-fighter.

"Ms Frizzle, what the hell are you doing?!" Arnold shouted.

"This is the perfect opportunity to study the human body when it's under extreme stress." Ms Frizzle calmly said, as they entered the cockpit.

"Look at that." a fellow student said, seeing the glass instruments.

Trigger ran thru the sequences of readying his plane, and rolled onto the tarmac. Looking behind him, he saw the surviving coalition pilots gather behind him.

"All pilots, follow me." he said.

As the squadron headed to their mission, Rick and Morty were escorted to an empty room.

"What's the big deal? I was forced to find miss crazy." Rick said.

"If the mission is a success and the drones are destroyed, you and Morty get to go home. If now, you'll be spending a long time in prison." Rosa said.

"Ms Frizzle, how are we going to study the human body if we're outside?" Carlos asked.

Ms Frizzle aimed at Trigger's mouth and accelerated inside to enter the body. It wasn't the first time the class was inside a human body.

Ms Frizzle took them to Trigger's left eyeball and everyone saw what the pilot was seeing with his own eyes.

"Look at that. There's no way anyone can fly this plane." Arnold said.

"Not true. This pilot must have been flying for years." Carlos said.

"That's correct, Carlos. You can't just hop into a state of the art plane without lots of knowledge and experience." Ms Frizzle said.

She pulled up Trigger's biosigns, and looked them over pleased that he was a healthy specimen. A loud rumbling noise was heard and everyone looked around, wondering where it was coming from. Looking thru the eyeball, they saw his left hand leave the throttle and clutch his stomach.

"Is he sick?" Phoebe asked.

"Lets find out." Ms Frizzle said, heading to the stomach. Upon reaching the stomach, they saw nothing in the stomach acid.

"There's nothing here." Ralphie said.

"So he's hungry." Dorothy said.

Ms Frizzle than took them to the heart, watching as the organ pumped blood throughout the body.

"It seems to be healthy." Wanda said.

"Then why are we here?" Arnold asked.

"When a person is under stress, the body undergoes physical reactions. The heart beats faster to get the blood to the body much quicker than usual. Also, the body deploys adrenaline in a fight or flight situation. By the way, we'll be seeing it soon." Ms Frizzle said, having been present during the briefing.

She quickly headed back to the eyes, when she stopped at the voice box, hearing his voice echoing inside his body.

"Longcaster, how long until we encounter the drones?" he asked.

"ETA is one hour on present course." Longcaster said.

"Is there anything you can tell us about the drones?" Count asked.

"This is Dr Schroeder. The drones you'll encounter are the same drones you've been fighting during the war. This should be easy."

"Sure thing. Like those two drones at the lighthouse were easy." Count sarcastically said.

"It's true. Those two drones were the only ones that had the recent flight data gathered by Mihaly. I'm not sure if these drones were ever upgraded since the beginning of the war." Dr Schroeder said.

"You expect us to believe that crap? That's bullshit, doc. But we'll find out in the next hour." Trigger said, shutting the comms.

"This guy seems angry." Tim says.

"He's not going to attack us, is he?" Arnold asked.

"There's no need to worry about him attacking us. I get the feeling he'll be busy with these drones." Ms Frizzle said.

"What's a drone?" Carlos asked.

Even Ms Frizzle couldn't answer it. The only way to find the answer was to head back to the eyeball and wait.


	3. Chapter 3

Ch 3

And wait they did for the next half hour. They saw Trigger reach into his jacket and pull out a small metal case. He opened it and pulled out a syringe, lightly flicking the case with his finger.

"Woah! That looks like the same needles the doctors would use. I remember a nurse sticking that inside me when i was sick." Ralphie said.

"Where is he going to put that in, his heart?" Dorothy asked.

"That's the last place you'll want to inject medicine in. He'll most likely put it in his arm or leg." Ms Frizzle said, seeing Trigger remove the cap. He then looked at his watch and put the cap back on.

"Why isn't he putting it in?" Keesha asked.

"He's waiting for the right moment." Dorothy said.

Trigger extended his radar, and saw the drones approaching.

"Longcaster, the toaster's have increased speed. ETA?" Trigger asked.

"Damn quick. All pilots, prepare for close combat." Longcaster said.

Trigger grabbed the syringe and stabbed the needle in his arm, pushing the liquid inside his body. Taking a deep breath, he relished the pure adrenaline flowing thru his body.

"Here they come!" Trigger shouted, firing his laser pod.

The class got a front view of the bright red laser cutting thru the sky, destroying several drones in one shot.

"Cool! He's shooting lasers with his eyeballs!" Tim said.

"Not true. If he was, we'd be dead since we're in his eye. Look at the cockpit next time he shoots." Ms Frizzle said, pointing to upper brace. Trigger pulled the trigger again, and they saw the laser fly past the canopy. Moving his feet and right hand, Trigger guided the laser onto his target, destroying more drones.

Both parties merged, and Trigger pulled up to pursue a drone.

"Fox 2!" Trigger shouted, firing a missile. The weapon pursued the drone and destroyed it. Trigger then saw a swarm of drones approaching from above and pulled up to face them.

"Oh man. He's gonna face all of them?" Wanda asked.

"I knew i should have stayed home." Arnold moaned in response.

"Come on, Trigger. You've got to do something." Ms Frizzle prayed.

Trigger fired one of the MPBM missiles at the swarm of drones. The missile hit the middle drone and erupted in a large explosion, taking out all but one of the drones.

"Holy damn!" Carlos said.

"Language!" Ms Frizzle chastised.

"Sorry, but that was so cool!" Carlos said.

Watching thru his eye, they saw Trigger go head to head with the lone drone, both aircraft firing their guns.

The drone fired a missile, yet Trigger was still heading towards his enemy. The drone then fired a missile as it was destroyed.

"We're gonna die!" Arnold exclaimed. Everyone looked ahead in shock and fear; even Ms Frizzle was gripping the steering wheel as hard as she could. For the first time, her students were in danger and there was nothing she could do about it.

Trigger let the missile impact on the bottom of his plane, taking out a chunk of the armor yet he dove into the fray as if it were nothing.

"Smash one toaster squadron." he grinned.

"He took a missile, and he's still fighting. Does he have a death wish?" Keesha asked.

Trigger fired the last of his laser at the drones, this time only forcing them to break up.

"They're easy pickings. Take them out." Trigger ordered his squadron.

"Trigger behind you!" Count exclaimed, seeing two drones chase after him.

Turning his head and plane to counter the threat, Trigger singled out a drone and both engaged in close quarters combat. The drone took Trigger on a crash course of close range dogfighting, rolling and twisted across the skies, yet Trigger was stubborn in his pursuit. Upon getting close enough, he fired his missile only for the drone to outmaneuver his shot.

Undeterred, he closed in firing his guns and was rewarded with the drone turning into him. Both planes engaged in an aerial dance as both attempted to get on the other's rear.

"I'm gonna hurl." Phoebe said, vomiting thanks to the rapid eye movement as Trigger strained to keep his enemy in his sight. Ms Frizzle pulled up his boisigns, and saw his brain and heart functions working overtime. His adrenal levels were spiked up, thanks to the needle he used.

"If he keeps this up, he'll have a heart attack." Carlos said.

"It's most likely these planes he's fighting will do the job instead of his heart. Speaking of his heart." Ms Frizzle said, as she tuned into his heartbeat and let the sound echo into the bus. It was a loud bass noise that constantly beat with no slowing down.

"Listen, class. The sweet sound of a healthy human heart." Ms Frizzle said, calmly watching the carnage thru his eyes. The drone exploded in front of him, peppering his plane with more shrapnel. Trigger looked behind him and saw a drone fire a missile at him. The class heard his heartbeat increase, like a drummer increasing the tempo.

"Now we're getting into a stressful situation." Ms Frizzle said.

"Ms Frizzle, do something!" the class exclaimed.

"I can't do anything. We have to rely on Trigger." she said, pointing to the man they resided in.

"Trigger, do something!" the class exclaimed.

Trigger slowed down and sharply turned into the missile, unintentionally scaring the students that were inside him.

"He's suicidal! Tim exclaimed.

The missile failed to maintain the lock and zoomed past him without a care in the world. Trigger moved in close to engage the drone, only for the drone to outmaneuver him.

"This ends now." Trigger growled, as he armed his last missile and pulled away from the drone. Upon regaining contact, he fired his last MPBM and fired at the wayward drone killing it in an obscene explosion. Everyone in the bus either blinked or turned away from the explosion.

Trigger never blinked nor turned his head away.

"Temper, temper, Trigger." Huxian playfully said. Trigger only chuckled in response. As he turned to find more drones to kill, a drone zoomed past firing its guns. Trigger gave chase and saw the drone flip on its axis and headed towards him. Trigger fired his guns and destroyed the drone.

"Arghhh!" Trigger growled, as shrapnel went thru the cockpit sending both glass and metal into his chest.

"Trigger, you alright?!" Count asked.

"No. I'm not alright. I've got shrapnel and glass inside me." Trigger said, clutching his chest, blood gathering on his glove. Trigger held the grim evidence in front of him, and shook his head in disbelief.

"I survive the whole fucking war, Mihaly, the super drones, the space elevator, only to possibly die from some shrapnel. Fucking perfect." he bitterly spat.

"Tabloid, the squadron is yours. I'm seeing a tarmac at Meglith. I'm going to try and heal myself. Once the drones are taken care off, head back to the space elevator." Trigger said.

"We're not going to abandon you, Trigger." Jaeger said.

"That's an order. If i'm not back in 12 hours, then I'm not coming back." Trigger said, shutting down communications.

Ms Frizzle took them to the shrapnel, seeing the pieces of jagged metal and glass piercing the red, angry swelling flesh.

"Trigger, i hope you know what you're doing." she said.

"Wait. If that's what's hurting him, then we should push it out." Wanda said.

"Absolutely not!" Ms Frizzle shouted, turning to face her students. They cowered back in fear, never had they seen Ms Frizzle angry before, let alone with them.

"Why not?" Arnold asked.

"That shrapnel is acting like a cork. It's applying pressure to keep the blood inside. We push that outside his chest, and he'll die. And if he dies, then our chances of getting home are slim to none. Understand?" Ms Frizzle asked.

"We understand." Tim said.

Heading back to the eye, they watched as Trigger landed his bird and slowed to a complete stop. Upon shutting down the engines, he opened the canopy and climbed out of the cockpit.

"We should help him." Dorothy said.

"I'll help him. You kids stay inside. Liz, if something goes wrong here, take the bus and head back to the space elevator." Ms Frizzle said, echoing Trigger's last order to his pilots. She flew out of Trigger's mouth and returned the bus to its original size. Trigger was busy removing his helmet and top half of his suit.

"Oh fuck." he said, seeing the shrapnel sticking out of his chest.

"Don't touch that!" Ms Frizzle exclaimed, catching the pilot's attention. She raised her hands up when he pulled out his pistol and aimed it at her.

"Ms Frizzle? What are you doing here?" Trigger asked.

"Long story. But i can help you." she said.

"But how did you get here?" Trigger asked, now lowering his pistol.

"You know my bus can transform to any size i wish. I shrank us down to molecular size and entered your body." Ms Frizzle said.

"Why?" Trigger asked.

"I'm a science teacher. I wanted to teach my kids how the body reacts to stress in highly dangerous situations." she said.

"And i was your guinea pig. Did i pass?" Trigger joked.

"For the moment. I must say, you're very skilled with that plane of yours." Ms Frizzle said, standing next to Trigger.

"Glad you enjoyed the show. Like how i blew up that last drone with my missile?" Trigger asked.

"That was overkill." she chuckled.

"There's no such thing as overkill. Just an obscene amount of munitions poured onto one target." Trigger said, as he collapsed against the front landing gear, clutching his chest.

"If you pull that out, you'll die. Not unless you can cauterize it." she said.

"I know. Maybe you can help." Trigger said.

"Alright. What do you need?"

"Duct tape, water, and gunpowder. Open that panel. You'll see bullets to the nose gun." Trigger said, watching as Ms Frizzle pulled out one of her gadgets and removed the panel. She pulled out several rounds and held them in her palm.

"Remove the lead point. Don't pour out the gunpowder unless i say so." Trigger guided.

"Smart. Use the powder to cauterize the wound." Ms Frizzle said.

"Oldest trick in the book. One of the first things i was taught in survival training." the pilot said.

"Mind if i have my students watch?" Ms Frizzle asked.

"For science, i presume. Your fucking insane." Trigger said.

"Well, i've been called that before." Ms Frizzle giggled.

"It's unlikely i'll die from this. Go ahead." he said.

The students came out, watching a half-naked Trigger laying on his back with their mad science teacher sitting on him.

"Your teacher wanted you guys to watch." Trigger said.

"But Ms Frizzle said not to pull that out." Arnold said.

"Not unless we cauterize it. That's where those bullets come in." Ms Frizzle said, pulling out a pair of pliers.

"Start with the glass." Trigger said, laying back and keeping his eyes on the super-plane above him, feeling as the wacky teacher pulled shrapnel out as gently as she could.

"Is he going to be alright?" Arnold asked.

"I'm not dead yet." Trigger said, wincing as Ms Frizzle yanked out a piece of shrapnel. Grabbing a canteen she washed the blood away and put a firm hand on the wound.

"Now comes the hard part. Pour the gunpowder directly on the ground. Once all the cases are empty, put a flame to the powder. There's a lighter in my pocket." Trigger said, as Ms Frizzle reached into his pocket and pulled out the lighter.

"I can't watch." Arnold said.

"I suggest Ms Frizzle be the only one watching." Trigger said, closing his eyes as well. Ms Frizzle put the gunpowder directly on the wound and then put the lighter to the powder, watching as it burned his skin and sealed the wound shut. Ms Frizzle then grabbed his medkit and put some morphine inside of him to keep the pain away.

"Thanks, Ms Frizzle. I have a strange request to make of you." Trigger said.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Lay on top of me, matching your arms and legs to mine." Trigger said. Ms Frizzle furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, but decided to obey Trigger. Trigger then had Ms Frizzle get off of him a second later.

"Okay. You're sitting on my lap. I have no energy and i also have morphine inside me. I won't be flying her out by myself." Trigger said, noticing Ms Frizzle produce his knife. She proceeded to cut away parts of her dress and wrapped it around Trigger as a makeshift tourniquet. The class turned away from the two adults, not wanting to see their teacher almost nude.

"Come on. Where's your sense of adventure? Take chances. Make mistakes. Get messy." She said, as she helped Trigger put on his suit.

"I doubt their sense of adventure includes seeing their teacher discard pieces of her clothing to help a stranger heal himself." Trigger said as he stood up against the landing gear with Ms Frizzle supporting him.

"Liz, get the class back to the elevator. We'll meet you soon." Ms Frizzle said to her pet lizard. Said lizard snapped a salute and headed to the bus with the rest of the students.

"And if anyone asks where Trigger is, tell them he's on his way." Trigger added.

Sitting in the cockpit, Trigger grunted as Ms Frizzle sat on his lap, pressing her body against his.

"Lets go home." Trigger said.

With the canopy closed, Trigger started the engines up and they turned themselves around. Accelerating down the tarmac, the lone fighter screamed into the sky finding themselves alone.

"Trigger, where's everyone else?" Ms Frizzle asked.

"They left. Trigger told them to head back to the elevator once they took care of the drones. It's just Strider 1." Longcaster said.

"Copy that. This is Strider 1, RTB." the ace said, letting the morphine kick in. Ms Frizzle soon found herself in the unenviable position of flying a state of the art super fighter, as she put her hands on the control stick and throttle. The light breathing of Trigger on her neck told her he was still alive. If they didn't encounter any threats, that was good.

"So, how does it feel to fly a superplane?" Trigger asked, almost groggy.

"It feels much different than the bus." Ms Frizzles said.

"I can imagine. How did you manage to cram all that tech…" Trigger faded into drowsiness, leaving Ms Frizzle alone with her thoughts. She rested against Trigger, feeling the roar of the engines in her belly. Looking around at the cockpit, she saw the school bus floating next to her. She only winked at her students.

"Looks like Ms Frizzle is getting cozy with her new boyfriend." Wanda said.

Everyone else gave Wanda odd looks; Liz facepalmed herself.


	4. Chapter 4

Ch 4

"Does Ms Frizzle know how to land a plane?" Arnold asked as the space elevator came into view.

"Just remember, any landing you can walk away from is a good landing." Carlos said.

"Carlos!" the rest of the students exclaimed as Liz flipped him off.

Waking up, Trigger moved his hands to regain control of the plane, but Ms Frizzle had other plans.

"You may have the experience, but you're also loopy. I'll land her." she said.

Trigger only nodded in response. He instead guided her thru the landing procedures and watched as the ground came closer and closer.

The Morgan hit the tarmac and Frizzle pulled the throttle back and pushed the control stick forward to help slow them down. With more guidance from the ace, she parked the plane in front of a hanger and pushed the canopy up. As mechanics came to service the plane, Avril only chuckled.

"What has dumbass got himself into?" she asked, seeing Ms Frizzle attempt to carry him down the ladder.

"Nothing that concerns you. He'd be dead if i wasn't around to help." Ms Frizzle said. She fell on her back with Trigger on top of her.

…

Trigger woke up in a hospital, seeing his squadron surrounding him.

"Did everyone make it?" he asked.

"We did. No losses on our side. And the drones are dead. All of them." Tabloid said.

"Good. I need something to eat." Trigger said, swinging his legs aside the bed. Entering the mess hall, Trigger grabbed some food and ate with his pilots as they chatted with each other.

"So, that teacher bandaged you up." Avril said.

"She did. Tore parts of her dress to keep the wound tight. Why the hell she came with me on that mission…" Trigger started.

"You want to talk to her?" Count asked.

"Bring her in. I'd like to talk with her." Trigger said, as he downed some juice.

"Trigger. Nice to see you're doing well." Ms Frizzle said.

"Thanks, Ms Frizzle. You saved my life. I owe you one." Trigger returned.

"I'll be sure to think of something. But one question. Why do you guys call those drones toasters?" Ms Frizzle asked.

"A battlestar galactica reference. The humans in the show call their machine enemies toasters, because the face of the cylons resemble a toaster. Now we are interested in that tech you have on the bus." Trigger said.

"Not for sale." Ms Frizzle said.

"That's fair. You saw the fighting over Meglith, and you said you were in my body. Where did you reside in my body?" Trigger asked.

"In your eyeball of course. It's the only way i could see what you were seeing." she said.

"There isn't any problems with his eyes, right?" Avril asked.

"None. We were shrunk down to the size of molecules so no harm done." she happily said.

"That's a relief." Trigger said.

"I was thinking of giving my students a tour of reproductive organs. Maybe you can help with that, Trigger." Ms Frizzle said.

"I'm not going to help traumatize your students." the ace retorted.

"Come on. It's nothing. I just need help with…" Ms Frizzle whispered into his ear what she wanted from the pilot. Trigger calmly put down his cup and closed his eyes, most likely processing whatever she had told him.

Upon opening his eyes again, his squadron looked into his eyes and saw nothing in them. He turned his head to give Ms Frizzle a thousand yard stare. He then stood up and walked away with a catotonic look in his eyes.

"I've never seen Trigger act like that, even when everything went to hell during the war." Count said.

"Ms Frizzle, what did you say to him?" Tabloid asked.

"Nothing. Just that we'd be having intercourse and that my students would be traveling from me to him and vice versa while shrunken down to molecular size. Nothing wrong with that." Ms Frizzle said, grabbing a pickle and gave it a long lick.

"I think you traumatized Trigger for the rest of his life. And after hearing what you said, i'm starting to understand why." Huxian said when one of the students came into the room shouting.

"The bus is stolen!" Ralphie exclaimed.

"What?" Frizzle asked, standing up.

"Yeah. That crazy scientist, Rick stole it."

"So long, bitches!" Rick shouted, driving the school bus and giving everyone the finger.

"I'll get it back. Ms Frizzle, you're with me." Trigger said, snapping out of his catatonic state.

"Trigger, your Morgan is in need of repairs. You'll need a different plane." Count said.

"What other planes do we have?" Trigger asked.

"There's an Su-30SM with you and Ms Frizzle's name on it." Tabloid said.

Once again, Trigger and Ms Frizzle were in the air chasing the school bus.

"Ms Frizzle, how much fuel does your bus have?" Trigger asked.

"Plenty." she said.

"Great. Rick could be flying all the way to Estovakia for all we know." Trigger said.

"Well, you'll be pleased to know there are no weapons on the bus. But this is Rick i'm talking about. So it's most likely he's outfitted it with some weapons." Ms Frizzle said.

"What kind of weapons?" Trigger asked, as he went thru the munitions on the plane.

"You'll have to ask him." she responded.

"I have bad news, Ms Frizzle. Since you came from space down the elevator, your bus obviously is capable of space travel. If i can't bring it down in atmo, i'll blow it to hell before it reaches space." Trigger said.

"No need to. When i first got the bus, i installed bio-metric ID. Only me and Liz are the only ones who can use the bus to its full potential. So that should make your job easier." Ms Frizzle said.

"Thank god." Trigger responded.

…

Inside the school bus, Morty was panicking as Rick attempted to gain full control of the bus.

"Oh jeez, Rick! Why would you do this? They'll kill us!" he exclaimed.

"Shut it, Morty! The tech on this bus is worth its weight in silver!" Rick said.

"Don't you mean gold?" Morty asked.

"No way in hell is this worth its weight in gold. Only in silver. But it's still impressive stuff." Rick said.

As they came closer, Rick activated a plasma turret that hosed the sky with lethal fire.

"Holy shit. We now know what kind of firepower he has." Trigger said, as he weaved and dodged thru the storm.

"As i always say, no time to panic like the present. Wahoo!" Ms Frizzle shouted with glee as Trigger pushed thru and fired his machine gun, a cold expression in his eyes.

"Plasma turret is neutralized. Ms Frizzle, your turn."

"To the bus!" she said, extending an arm forward. Trigger all but rammed the flying bus with his fighter jet, shattering a few windows in the process. Opening the canopy, Trigger inverted the plane and had to keep them steady. A task which was proving impossible even with fly-by-wire.

"To hell with this." he muttered. Sliding behind the bus, he pulled the trigger and fired a missile at the engines and destroyed one of them.

"Really, Trigger?" Ms Frizzle asked, as she got ready to jump from the plane to the bus. Trigger once again got close and watched as she dropped from the cockpit, slid down the canopy glass and onto the bus itself.

"How are you going to…" Trigger muttered when she pulled out a small bunsen burner and cut her way thru the top and dropped into the bus. Pulling aside them, Trigger watched as she pulled out her shrink ray and shrunk both Rick and Morty.

"Told you this would happen." Morty said.

"Morty, you said they would kill us. You didn't say they would shrink us." Rick retorted.

"Trigger, i have control of the bus. You can stand down, now." she said.

"Thank god. I've had enough of this courtship." Trigger replied.

"Well, we could all use a breather from some random craziness." she replied.

Upon landing at the base, Trigger quickly left his plane and approached the bus, seeing Ms Frizzle walk out.

"Where are Rick and Morty?" he asked.

"They decided to head back home. Not that i blame them." she said.

"Well, i guess it's time for you and your class to head back to your planet." Trigger said as the two headed towards the control tower.

"We do have one shot at that. After you fired your missile, some of the gadgets on the bus were damaged. The bus can take the form of a spaceship, but i'll need a lot of speed and energy to get into orbit." Ms Frizzle said.

"Then you're in luck. We have the space elevator you can use." Trigger said.

"Good to know. Do you guys have any advanced tech i can take a look at?" Ms Frizzle asked.

"We do, but it's all heavily classified. When are you going to take off?" Trigger asked.

"As soon as we can get the bus hooked up to the elevator. Which reminds me. How is that going to happen?" Ms Frizzle asked.

"I'll guide you to the elevator shaft. I need a few minutes by myself, if you don't mind." Trigger said.

Trigger headed to an F-4 and collapsed near one of the rear tires. Checking to make sure he was alone, he clenched his head, as recent memories of the chase under the elevator plagued his mind.

_'Shit, i'm hit! Is it my engine?... Wit, too! He was a good one.'_

Pushing the memories to the back of his head, he approached his SU-30 and climbed into the front seat.

"Control, this is Strider 1 and Ms Frizzle. Requesting clearance for take-off." he said, taxing to the runway.

"Copy that. You and Ms Frizzle have permission to take off." Longcaster said.

Trigger retraced his flight pattern, looking at his watch.

"God almighty." he said in shock.

"What is it?" Longcaster asked.

"I flew down the tunnel under the tower this morning at 0700 hours. And now it's 1900 hours. Feels like a lifetime ago." Trigger said as he flew into the tunnel he risked his life in before.

"Ms Frizzle, where are we?" Arnold asked.

"We're following Trigger's lead. He says this tunnel will take us to the elevator shaft." she answered.

"Stay clear of my jet wash." Trigger warned over the comms.

"What's that?" Carlos asked.

"It's turbulence that forms behind an aircraft as it passes thru the air. And it's bad news if you happen to fly into one. Your engine will be affected." Trigger answered.

Passing thru the tunnel, Trigger and Ms Frizzle flew up the space elevator, as she attached her bus to one of the cables and shot upward like a rocket.

"Damn. What did you feed that bus, a combo of PSP and cocaine?" Trigger asked.

Breaking thru the windbreak, Trigger leveled out and watched as the school bus screamed upward. Pulling out a binocular, he looked up and saw the bus disappear in a large glow of light. Looking ahead, he saw the computer receiving a shit load of data and he sent it to Longcaster and the control tower.

"Trigger, what is all of this?" Longcaster asked.

"I don't know. But i do know it came from Ms Frizzle." Trigger said, also going over the intel.

"It looks like she sent us blueprints for some trans-dimensional teleporter device. Reminds me of what the Belkans were rumored to make during the 1950s." Dr Schroeder said.

"Die Glocke. I've heard of that before." Tabloid added.

"It looks like we can make our own device and mount it on a plane. Trigger, if you want to be the test pilot say the word." Longcaster answered.

…

Back at their school, everyone was talking about their current field trip, the people they met and the airplanes and fighting that occured over Meglith.

"I can't believe they made all that stuff! He pulled the trigger and took out an entire squadron by himself!" Ralphie said.

"I can't believe we survived all that. That Trigger took a bunch of hits during the fight." Keesha added.

Watching her students chat amongst themselves, Ms Frizzle reached into her torn dress and pulled out a small chain with dog-tags hooked onto them. Looking at them, she darkly chuckled in response. If he wanted his dog-tags back, he'll have to come after them.


End file.
